Lions off to rare 2-0 start

Fresh off its win over Division I Howard Unviversity last weekend, theLincoln men’s basketball team made it two in a row, knocking offvisiting Philadelphia University of the Sciences, 64-52, in front of theusual packed house at Manuel Rivero Hall.

It’s the first time in over a decade that the Lions have gotten off to a 2-0 start. Not since the year 2000 has Lincolnofficially kicked off its season with a pair of wins.

“We worked hard all summer,” said Lincoln guard Kenny Sharpe. “We knowwhat kind of basketball we’re capable of playing. Now we just have toshow some other people what we can do. 2-0 is a nice way to start,but we’re not happy with that unless we keep building on it.”

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Sharpe led all scorers on the night, knocking down 19points on 6-of-14 shooting. Sharpe was clutch from the line down the stretch, andfinished 7of 9 from the charity stripe.

“We’re usually a good free-throw shooting team,” said Sharpe. “Westruggled a bit from the line in the early going, but we startedhitting them when we needed to.”

Lincoln, which only shot 50percent from the free-throw line in thefirst half, finished with a respectable 64.3 mark.

“We picked it up down the stretch,” said fellow guard George Jackson.“Kenny made a couple of key free throws on the intention foul thatreally put it out of reach.”

The Lions controlled the game nearly from start to finish, but didsuffer a rough stretch in the second half that saw a nine-point leadvanish, and the Devils had tied the game at 40-40 with 13:01 to play.

“That was one of the biggest differences between this year’s team andlast season,” said Lions coach John Hill. “Last year, we had troubleputting teams away and finishing. We’d see something like a leaddisappear, and we’d never get it back. This team just regrouped andgot the lead back and finished.”

Three players reached double digits for Lincoln. Besides Sharpe,Jackson chipped in with 11 of his own, including twothree-pointers.

“Once I started making some baskets, I thought I should just keepgoing,” said Jackson. “Shots started dropping, and I started makinglayups.”

Lincoln center Will Cole, returning to action after not having playedbasketball for two years, added another 10 points to go along withfour rebounds.

“We have a more balanced attack this year,” said Hill. “Our guardshave been playing really well, and Will has given us a threat in thepost. He’s really come on quickly after taking a two-year break fromthe sport.”

That added element—a good big man—is something that has been missingin recent seasons at Lincoln.

“It takes a lot of pressure off us guards,” said Sharpe. “I feel a lotmore comfortable knowing that we have the big guys behind us.”

While winning is nice, Hill cautions his squad not to get to caught upin a couple of wins.

“It is certainly nice to be winning,” said Hill. “But when you have ateam that struggled to get more than a win or two in a season, a fewmore than that last year, you have to learn to deal with success. As acoach, I’ve got to keep them grounded, and make sure they know not tolet themselves get too high or too low. Just keep an even keel andwork on consistency.”